In Paris, where concrete stretches endless and the air hums with tension, dehors shapes music that mirrors the city’s pulse. Their second EP, Contrenuit, released March 7, 2025, blends shoegaze’s reverb-drenched wash with screamo’s jagged edge, folding in post-rock depth and post-hardcore punch.
It’s a three-track dispatch from the metropolitan fray—raw, atmospheric, and steeped in the push-pull of urban existence. Drummer Ben’s cover photo, a northeastern Paris building with a pinkish façade scarred by fire under a wide sky, catches the mood: beauty tangled with decay, a visual echo of their sound.
The band’s influences run wide and deep. “Like most bands, we have a wide range of influences, the main one being shoegaze in all its forms, from dream pop to black metal by way of post-hardcore or indie,” they explain.
They lean into Have a Nice Life and Planning for Burial’s textured gloom—both from The Flenser—while pulling from Damián Antón Ojeda’s haunting work (Thra, Sadness, Life), Uboa’s ambient noise, and Justice Divine’s fresh post-punk sting.
Studio time with Étienne Sarthou for this EP forced them to rethink their sound, sharpening it to fit their varied tastes. “There is neither regularity nor rule. We compose together as much as possible, without any predefined role for each.”
They balance riff-driven cuts with sprawling atmospheres, like Un orage, and shifted from instrumental roots to French lyrics—a choice not taken lightly. “We made the choice to use lyrics in French, which wasn’t obvious at first,” they say, noting punk bands like Syndrome 81, Litovsk, and Trait d’union as trailblazers. Their early English days as Lie Dormant gave way to a stand against a market that “thrives to capitalize rather than create.”
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Contrenuit tackles city life head-on. “The EP revolves around the idea of living in a metropole, with all the incoherences and contradictions that it implies,” the band states.
It’s the thrill of endless options clashing with daily violence—an apathy that “is both what saves us and makes us riddled with guilt.” The title flips “contrejour” (backlight) into “against night,” where artificial glare blinds connection.
Track by track
“Insomnie”: “The first track, ‘Insomnie’, evokes impossible rest and chronic fatigue,” they say. It’s not just personal—fatigue is “a structural fact in our societies, therefore a collective experience, as well as depression.” The bass-drum intro hammers out nervous tension, the track shifting restlessly, refusing to settle.
“Rêverie”: “On the other hand, ‘Rêverie’ conveys softness,” they note, built around Guy Maddin’s “We sleep as we walk, we walk as we dream.” Dream pop’s pastel hues meet gloomy vocals, split by a krautrock drift in reverb. “The end of ‘Rêverie’… could be illustrated by a jaded yet sneering smile saying ‘living after all.’”
“Un orage”: “The last track, ‘Un orage’, conveys love, melancholy, and the seeking of peace,” they describe. It’s a narrative rush—“in a city drowned by a storm, one person is desperately looking for another”—ditching verse-chorus for a highway of flashing moods.
“It’s a space of saturation, and it’s this very saturation we are trying to convey in these three tracks,” they add. Between despair and cunning, it’s a snapshot of half-awake lives in a city that won’t quit.
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The cover, shot by Ben, pairs that fire-marked building with Cimleo’s logo—black metal typography knotted like roots. “It matches well with our music, that wishes to be mostly atmospheric, that seeks to evoke a certain urban melancholy,” they say, hinting at transformation in the everyday. (!Think a weathered magazine spread, crisp and tactile, with a YouTuber’s unscripted edge—direct, unpolished, lived-in.)
Paris underground scene
Paris’ underground scene keeps them grounded. Black metal thrives with Limbes and Vaurien, shoegaze pulses via Midscale, Healees, and Sarita Idalia.
Gigs roll out from La Bagarre (punk), Sonic Mass (hardcore), En veux-tu en v’là (noise rock), and Silence Kills (indie). Calamité zine maps it monthly, showcasing gender-minority art. But it’s fragile—venues like L’International and Le Cirque Électrique face soaring rents and slashed funds. “The state ain’t saving the place right now, but rather the people supporting the place by going there,” dehors observes.
“In Paris, the local music scene is both vibrant and in danger.” – they explain.
“Vibrant because the city is swamped with musical projects of a rare intensity. The black metal scene renews itself a lot for example, with bands like Limbes or Vaurien. There is a shoegaze revival also with bands like Midscale, Healees on the pop side or Sarita Idalia on the post-rock side. There are still some people who find time and energy to organise great concerts, like La Bagarre (punk, post-punk, garage), Sonic Mass (hardcore punk), En veux-tu en v’là (noise rock) or Silence Kills (indie, experimental).”
“There is a super zine called “Calamité” that publishes a monthly agenda of indie and experimental concerts in Paris. For each publication, they post an illustration made by a person in gender minority. These kinds of initiatives gather people and are of the utmost importance, as well as music itself.”
But there is danger lurking as the city politics make it more and more difficult to manage underground undertakings.
“From the fertile city we’re heading to the sterile city. It’s becoming harder and harder to find venues where musicians/artists can play without extortionate renting fees. Indie venues are threatened. Funds allocated to cultural places are in freefall, security norms are getting more restrictive, and so on. Right now, places like L’International or Le Cirque Électrique are going through an ordeal… L’International might be closed definitely since the city council refused to fund part of the construction works that the building needs.”
“The state ain’t saving the place right now, but rather the people supporting the place by going there to see the artists… as well as the artists themselves, who organize events there, allowing the bar employees to get a meager income. Going beyond the market transaction creates solidarity.”
“What saves us is the fact of considering places we go to not merely as market oriented spaces, but first and foremost as common spaces. And it’s hard to set in motion when urbanism seeks to hunt the poor in order to profit the bourgeoisie. Neighborhood problems are recurrent and reveal the intensity of the gentrification. It seems the city must behave and stay calm… and in the middle of all this we’re trying to breathe. The indie scene tries to strike back politically.”
Their anti-fascist core shines through. With France’s far-right rising, they align with Banlieue Rouge’s black-metal resistance and Salut les Zikettes’ feminist support.
Palestine’s fight matters too—BATS FOR PALESTINE underscores it. “It’s extremely important to take position, to think about where we play, and with who,” they say, as gentrification—“urbanism seeks to hunt the poor”—tightens its grip.
This EP is their first physical release since summer 2023, and it owes François (Indie or Die) and Manon (Hidden Bay Records) for the push. “It’s the result of a project… but it’s first and foremost a proposition and a starting point,” they note.
New tracks are brewing, an album’s in sigh.
“The release of the EP makes us want to compose even more. We already have a few new tracks, we would like to take the time to compose more in order to record an album soon. We simply want to take the time, let the propositions evolve and mature. We don’t want to get stuck in repeating patterns or produce just for the sake of producing.”
Touring France and nearby countries looms, alongside a Super 16 video for Un orage, directed by Ben: “Each of the band members either standing still at their windows, looking out, or doing daily stuff,” mixed with empty building shots. (!Picture a zine’s stark prose meets a vlogger’s casual grit—honest, worn, no frills.)
Contrenuit doesn’t romanticize the city—it dissects it. Dehors lays out the grind, the noise, the fleeting calm, all wrapped in shoegaze haze, spiced up with screamo sting. Can’t wait to hear more from these guys.
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